Ask Frank DaignaultFrank Daignault is recognized as an authority on surf fishing for striped bass. He is the author of six books and hundreds of magazine articles. Frank is a member of the Outdoor Writers of America and lectures throughout the Northeast.

who needs a flyrod when you've got that wooden egg??? I look at fly guys waving thier fary wands and they just look out of place. Yes some of them catch bass, but I've never seen anything over 20lbs landed... but the ratios arent even between spiners and flytossers...
I dunno where I'm going with this... I know how to throw plugs and eels pretty well and when I get into a worm hatch, I bust out my wooden egg and homemade cinderworm flys.. No fly rod needed for this guy.
But if the books good, I'd buy it.. I love fishing books. I learn more from fly books.
eben

First of all I had never and would never,doubt your advocacy of the fly rod, I was wearing some "Orvis" stuff the day of that seminar,( I don't anymore). Secondly, I went nutz and had forsaken all other means of bailing a bass from the brine whereupon I had forgotten that Flyfishing was not the only method to take fish, for those years I had convinced myself that it was and that all the other methodologies were barbaric compared to the "long wand"( once again long wand has taken on it's true meaning and it ain't got nothing to do with flyrods). I have now regained my senses and broken out of that evil spell that held me and through rehab and self determination found closure in the fact that flyfishing, as I said before, is a weapon in the arsenal and like Mr. Woolner told me many moons ago, "to be a truly good Striper fisherman one has to master all the disciplines that are available to him so that no matter which situation you encounter you are equal to the task and success will be your reward". As you well know, as described in your first book with the bass under the light at Race Point, sometimes the only way to put a bass on the beach will be the fly. I only carry the one now on the beach but I never leave home without it. Condeming yourself to only the fly might be a challenge but after a while, in the soul of a true Striper addict,at least in my case, you will eventually be left un-fulfilled.

I do not fly-fish, and have not in the past either. I sometimes think when I see a *solo* flyfisherman, or a *pair* of flyfishers, working a bar, or a bowl, that it looks like it would be a fun and challenging way of surf-fishing, and think that *someday* I'd like to give that a try.

What I do not understand is the *formation* of 12, or more flyfishers in a row, decked out in their finest, whipping the flats into a frenzy, and getting excited over tiring out a few 20-24 inch fish to the point where they are about to expire. Much is done to revive thess poor shorts, and they are given a scoot, to get them on there way. I have been *pushed* off a few good clamming spots by these spey clavers, and observed this, and am puzzled, is this actually fun, fishing in formation, whilst immaculately dressed?
I have also found they will move quicker than a school of blues, if a well placed cast with a 3oz. Kastmaster, lands in amongst them

Karl - what you probably saw was a club outing. The FF clubs usually have an outing like that every once in awhile. I've been on one or two myself. Usually nothing is caught. It is better when you go by yourself.

here where I fish in Maine, less than ten miles from the mecca of flyfishingdum, LL Bean, I see a ton of guys show up, usually late, in the new gear and multi-hundred dollar rods, wading right in wherever they want basically catching nothing.
When they do hook something the rod is bent over double, ten minutes later they have backed a monster 24"er onto the beach basically dead. Then there is the guy who invariably is there when the fish have moved into the outgoing tidal slot, who absolutely has to go to the other side of the river and spook all the fish, even though he can see we're hitting them hard right next to that bank.
All that said, I really enjoy flyfishing for stripers at night in this light tidal river. Sometimes since the water is shallow the stripers actually jump out of the water when you set the hook.
In the last few years, I have made a change in my attitude, I am friendly to everyone, no matter their technique. If they screw up my spot, I just move on, sometimes I say hi, if they want to shoot the bull, the better for both of us. (although sometimes catching one fish after another with a sluggo right in front of the flyguys is satisfying in a sick sort of way!)

My first choice for catching is a sturdy surf rod and a bag of plugs, but it's hard to beat a good night of flyfishing.

I only get to fish for stripers about 3/4 weeks every year, and often the flyrod never comes out of the case. At certain times however it can be the other way around. One trip to the cape in particular we had stripers all over the beach and i never touched a spinner. This is one of my fondest striper memories. One of the things that stands out is the fellows throwing wigglers couldn't buy a fish, were we had one litteraly every other cast, and good fish too.

A misconception is that flyrodders can't beachout a decent fish without thouroughly exhausting it first. The problem is that most folks don't put any pressure on them, and hold there rod straight up and down. During the above mentioned trip we beached countless bass in the 8-12# range without them ever getting into the backing, probably in less than two miinutes, just so we could get back out and hook a bigger one. With the exception of a couple fish hooked in a good running rip i've landed fish up to 35# in around 7-8 Minutes. The trick with the bigger fish is to let em smoke you on that first run, cause you ain't gonna stop em then, when there done let em have it. Don't let em rest, keep as much pressure on em as you can, and keep gaining line.
Most would be surprised at the amount of pressure you can put on a fish with a fly rod, they just don't know how. Of course the other factor is they don't want to break a several hudred dollar fly rod.
With all that being said i'd have to say i agree with most everything everyone has said.

My sentiments exactly, Moon. I would always choose a big stick with a 357 Magnum line and fish like an "asta la vista" surfcster. Bbbbut, and there is always a but, those times when fly fishing is the ticket, you want to be up for the project. The right thing for the right reasons, done the right way.

But oh, and this is one of those times when I wish I had addressed this in the new book, the misconception people love to use to trivialize fly fishing by saying that -- "they take so long fighting the fish, they kill it" -- is pure, unadulterated mule dung. it just gets repeated over and over. And now that we have an Inernet, it circulates even faster and more effectively. The big lie.

Last year I had decent, not big mind you, but say 11/12 pounds on and there were a lot of weeds in the outflow and they kept packing on the leader and packing on until I just could not bring that fish in against the current. I gave the rod to Joyce stripped down and swam out after the freaking thing, following the line until I got to this ball of weeds three feet thick and four feet long -- a 50 pounder . we got this thing up on the shore and start digging in the freakin weeds and there is this 11 pounder in the center. We unhooked it, it having been on for a full half hour, and it swam away in the 70 degree water, even slowed down and flipped me out before it scooted off . The weeds died of exhaustion .

You right Moonshadow. good post. Moon, if I had a promise from the Bat Lady, I would pass it on to you just to show my approval. But then, being the Bat Lady, she could put the babble in both our brooks .... the same night

I think what hurts alot of flyfisherman, and surfcasters for that matter is lack of understanding about thier quarry. I'm not a great flycaster by any means, but i know where to put it and when. Most good striper fly guys or girls , but not all, by my observations, seem to be converted surfcasters.

Yes, I agree. You have to have a good grounding in striper fishing. Actual fly casting you can be a so-so caster, but if you have the right fly and chuck it in an easy place to reach, you can consistantly bail bass.

My high school sweetheart, Momma J, is an awful caster, but she fishes at night in a place where the fish are at her feet, splats her lousy cast, believes in what she is doing and BADOING.

The victims we laugh at here seem always to show up after daylight with all those pinwheel thigamagigies curling 90 feet of iambic pentamater in a now empty sea. Of course, Momma J is not afraid of the dark.

In the new book, Fly Fishing the Striper Surf it is our hope to take the clang out of fly fishing's mess kits. Get that effete, Gray Poupon image replaced with squid stink, put a little dirt under the fingernails of fly fishing. We want, though I cannot be sure we have succeeded, to promote fly fishing as another means to a common end with as much potential as spinning or conventional surfcasting.

quote:Originally posted by Frank Daignault: In the new book, _Fly Fishing the Striper Surf_ it is our hope to take the clang out of fly fishing's mess kits. Get that effete, Gray Poupon image replaced with squid stink, put a little dirt under the fingernails of fly fishing. We want, though I cannot be sure we have succeeded, to promote fly fishing as another means to a common end with as much potential as spinning or conventional surfcasting.